New probe over In Cold Blood pair

The bodies of the two men executed for the 1959 murders of a Kansas family that became infamous in Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood have been exhumed in an effort to solve slayings of a Florida family killed weeks later.

The bodies of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were exhumed from the Mount Muncie Cemetery in Lansing

The bodies of the two men executed for the 1959 murders of a Kansas family that became infamous in Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood have been exhumed in an effort to solve slayings of a Florida family killed weeks later.

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New probe over In Cold Blood pair

Independent.ie

The bodies of the two men executed for the 1959 murders of a Kansas family that became infamous in Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood have been exhumed in an effort to solve slayings of a Florida family killed weeks later.

The bodies of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were exhumed from the Mount Muncie Cemetery in Lansing at the request of the sheriff's office in Sarasota County, Florida, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation has announced.

The two men were executed for the murders of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and their children in Holcomb, Kansas, on November 15 1959.

A Sarasota County Sheriff's detective has been trying to determine whether Smith and Hickock were also responsible for the deaths of Cliff and Christine Walker and their two young children on December 19 1959, in their home in Osprey, about four hours north-west of Miami near Sarasota. Smith and Hickock fled to Florida after the Clutter murders.

Sarasota County detective Kimberly McGath said she requested the exhumation to obtain DNA that could be compared to that from semen found on Christine Walker's underwear.

All the Walkers were shot. Christine Walker also was beaten and raped. Their two-year-old daughter also was drowned in a bathtub.

Detectives who investigated the Walker murders have considered Smith and Hickock possible suspects since 1960, according to records released by the Sarasota Sheriff's office.

The two men checked out of a Miami Beach motel on December 19, the day the Walker family was killed, and at some point that day bought items at a Sarasota department store. Witnesses have said they spoke with Smith and Hickock in Tallahassee on December 21.

McGath said the Walkers were considering buying a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, the kind of car Smith and Hickock were driving through Florida. McGath thinks the Walkers met with the men because of the car, which had been stolen.

Smith and Hickock were later arrested in Las Vegas. A polygraph test cleared them of the Walker murders, but a polygraph expert said in 1987 that such tests were worthless in the early 1960s.